Bushra MassalhaPsychology Researcher
PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology specializing in cognitive biases, psychopathology, and pediatric health psychology. Researching factors that predict psychological well-being in children with cancer and their families, focusing on attention and memory processes.
About My Research
Recent Achievement
Awarded a grant by the Israel Cancer Association, in collaboration with Prof. Nilly Mor and Dr. Shiri Ben-David from Hebrew University, Prof. Nazanin Derakshan from Birkbeck University of London, UK, and Dr. Adi Nitzan-Luques from Hadassah Medical Center.
My research aims to delineate factors that predict psychopathology among children with cancer and their parents. In line with central theories of emotional disorders, I focus on cognitive biases in processing threat-related information, and specifically biased attention and memory.
To investigate whether these biases contribute to the maintenance of emotional difficulties beyond the immediate effects of illness, I also assess children in remission and their parents. My study involves three groups of children and their parents: children in the active phase of cancer treatment, children in remission, and healthy controls.
Cognitive Biases
Attention and memory processing in threat-related contexts
Pediatric Health
Psychopathology in children with cancer and their families
Interventions
Developing strategies to modify cognitive biases and improve well-being
Identifying links between cognitive biases and psychopathology can help in applying strategies of psychological interventions that could modify such biases and contribute to the well-being of these children and their parents.
Get In Touch
Interested in collaboration, research opportunities, or have questions about my work?